How to Find the Right Influencer for Your Brand

Finding the right influencer isn’t about chasing follower counts or paying the first creator who replies to your DM. It’s about fit. The best creator for your brand is someone who speaks directly to your audience, aligns with your values, and can actually drive action—not just eyeballs.

If you’ve already decided that influencer marketing is right for your business, you need to make this next step count. In this post, we’ll walk through the full process of finding the right creators—from defining what “right” even means to using data to make the call.

Want the full breakdown on influencer marketing as a growth system? Read our full guide here

Why Most Brands Get This Wrong

Let’s get this out of the way: most brands approach creator discovery totally backward.

They :

• Filter for “influencers with 100k+ followers”
• Choose creators based on vibes or aesthetic
• Reach out with a generic message and hope for the best

This results in inconsistent output, wasted budget, and zero way to measure success. Instead, we’re going to build a system rooted in first principles—not guesswork.

Step 1 : Define What “Right” Means for Your Brand

Start by identifying what you’re actually looking for in a creator. This means aligning your influencer strategy with your business objectives.

1. Platform

Where does your target customer spend time ?

• TikTok for speed, reach, and short-form content
• Instagram for aesthetic, lifestyle, and UGC
• YouTube for long-form, educational, or demo-style content

Choose 1–2 to focus on. Don’t try to do it all.

2. Niche

Make sure the creator’s audience overlaps with your customer profile.

• Fitness gear? Look for creators in training, wellness, or sports.
• Supplements? Think health educators or routine-based creators.
• Fashion? Style breakdowns, thrift hauls, outfit-of-the-day accounts.

3. Content Style

What kind of content do you want to get out of this ?

• Product reviews
• Tutorials
• Skits
• Day-in-the-life integrations

This influences not just the creator, but also your campaign brief later on.

Step 2 : Look at the Right Metrics (Not Just Follower Count)

Followers are a vanity metric. What actually matters :

Engagement Rate

Are people interacting? Are there thoughtful comments, shares, saves ?

Content Quality

Is the creator good at storytelling? Do they make things feel native and unforced ?

Past Campaigns

Have they worked with brands before? How did those posts perform ?

Audience Insights

If they have a large following in a different country than you ship to, that’s a red flag.
Pro tip: use platforms like Growi to view verified data on a creator’s actual sales performance, GMV, click-through rate, and conversion efficiency

Step 3 : Source Creators Efficiently

Manual searching works when you’re just starting—but it doesn’t scale. Here are the three best ways to find quality creators :

1. Your Existing Customers

Look at who’s already tagging you, talking about your product, or posting organically. These creators are low-friction and high-trust.

2. Competitor Campaigns

Use tools to see who your competitors are partnering with. If they’re working in your niche, there’s a good chance you share audience overlap.

3. Use a Discovery Platform

With Growi, you can filter creators by :

• Platform and vertical
• Average GMV driven
• Conversion rates
• Past brand partnerships

The goal is to build a shortlist of high-fit creators, not just a list of names. We recommend starting with 10–20.

Step 4 : Qualitative Vetting

Once you have a shortlist, vet creators with a mix of logic and intuition.

Ask :

• Do they talk about things that match your brand’s tone and values ?
• Is their content mostly sponsored or do they maintain trust with their audience ?
• Would you repost this content to your brand’s own feed ?

You’re not just hiring distribution. You’re hiring representation.

Step 5 : Reach Out Strategically

Once you know who you want to work with, don’t blow it with a copy-paste DM.

Your outreach should :

• Mention something specific about their content
• Be clear on why you’re reaching out
• Offer next steps (e.g. “Can I send over the campaign brief ?

You can send and track outreach directly through Growi, which centralizes all communication, briefs, and offers per creator—so you don’t end up chasing threads across Instagram DMs and Gmail.

Step 6 : Track Performance Early and Often

Once content starts going live, don’t wait until the campaign ends to see what worked. With Growi, you can view :

• Real-time GMV driven per creator
• Post-level CTR and conversions
• Which creators are outperforming other

This lets you scale what’s working and pause what isn’t. Over time, this performance data becomes your best sourcing tool—because now you're choosing creators based on results, not assumptions.

Final Checklist for Picking the Right Creator

1. Audience matches your target
2. Platform aligns with your content format
3. Past branded content is strong
4. Good engagement quality
5. Performance history available
6. Easy to communicate and manage
7. Content fits your brand’s voice

If you check all those boxes, you’re not just finding influencers—you’re building your next revenue channel.

TL;DR

• Don’t chase followers. Focus on audience fit and conversion potential.
• Define what kind of creator you need before you start searching.
• Use data to validate decisions—not gut feel or vibes.
• Softwares like Growi make the whole process easier, from discovery to tracking.

Want to build a full influencer engine that scales ? Start here with our 2,500-word guide